APPENDIX. g7 



The alkaloids were extracted from the root by the following process, 

 which precludes the possibility of the occurrence of hydrolysis, &c. : 

 The solution obtained by percolating with cold rectified fusel oil 

 (b. p. 100-132°) was agitated with water acidified with 1 per cent, of 

 siilphurie acid, and the resin having been removed by extracting the 

 acid solution so obtained with chloroform, the liquid was made just 

 alkaline with dilute ammonia and extracted with ether, which dis- 

 solved out a considerable quantity of alkaloid, but left in solution a 

 further and smaller quantity, which was subsequently extracted 

 by agitation with chloroform. The alhaloid soluble in ether was 



un-likeniass incapable of crystallization. By con - 



stallizaUe 



an uncrystallizable salt. 



The crystalline product was identified as the salt of aconitine, the 

 crystalline and highly toxic alkaloid already described by one of the 

 authors and Dr. W. H. Ince (C. S. Trans.^ 1891). The alkaloid 

 separated from the pure bromhydride melted at ISS'S"" (corr.)^ and 



numbers 



SSTJiS 



'H 



N0^2. The specific rotation of the bromhydride in aqueous solution 

 was ascertained to be [a]o—29'65, a value which agrees with that 

 previously recorded. As some doubt exists as to the solubility of 

 aconitine in water, a determination was carefully made with this pure 

 specimen. The mean of two determinations gav^e 1 gmm in 4,431 

 grams of water as the solubility at 22°; Jiirgens had previously 



same temperature 



The non^crystalline bromhydride furnished a gummy alkaloid 

 soluble in ether aud alcohol, but only sparingly soluble in water, 

 the afjneous solution being alkaline to litmus, and \ei'j bitter, but 

 not giving rise to the tingling sensation so characteristic of aconitine. 

 Not only the alkaloid, but also the chlorhydride, sulphate, nitrate and 

 auiichloride prepared from it could not be crystallized. This alkaloid 

 is not identical either with aconine or with the picraconitine of Wright 

 and Luff, A fxill account of it ■s^ill be given in a later paper, con- 

 siderable progress having already been made in the most difficult 

 task of isolating it in'a pure state. The authors propose to assign to 

 it the name napdline^ which was first given to the alkaloid now known 

 ^"^ pseudaconitine, and afterwards by Hiibschmann to a substance 

 "Which the work of Wright and Luff showed to be a mixture chiefly 

 composed of aconine. The napelline obtained in the manner described 



